Sources of stimulus control in tests for emergent stimulus relations

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to provide additional tests of visual mediation hypothesis by examining the effects of interfering with verbal and visual mediation in groups that received the TI and IT training sequences in the intraverbal naming task. Experiment 1 examined the effects of disrupting verbal mediation during the image-matching test. Participants were assigned to one of four groups. Two groups received tact instruction prior to intraverbal instruction (TI groups) and the other two groups received the opposite training sequence (IT groups). One TI and one IT group were instructed to engage in a task intended to disrupt verbal mediation during test. The disruption task did not differentially affect the groups based on instruction sequence. Experiment 2 examined the effects of disrupting visual imagery during intraverbal training. Participants were assigned to one of four groups, two TI and two IT groups. One TI and one IT group were instructed to engage in a task intended to disrupt visualization during intraverbal training. This disruption task differentially affected speed of responding during test for the IT group.